A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a folding bike that folds on or near the seat tube wherein the front and rear structural frame members bypass each other during folding and do not overlap except at folding and fastening positions and which uses an innovative mechanism to lock the front and a rear frames together in the operative riding position.
B. Background Information
Many folding bicycles have been designed to date which insert a hinging member into a cut main tube near the middle of the bicycle which both hinges and locks the bicycle in the riding position. These bicycles are typically weak and require a number of folding steps making for a bicycle that is complicated to fold and structurally weak. To date the strongest folding bicycles have been those that do not break a structural member and instead fold about concentric tubes located at or near the seat tube such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,437, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,047, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,551.
There are however still areas for improvement in order to increase the strength of the frame assembly and to enhance and simplify the folding operation. In this application, a novel fastening assembly and assembly location is introduced.